This invention relates in particular to a method for updating and/or expanding the functionality of the sequence control of at least one control unit of a motor vehicle.
In known methods of updating the sequence controls, i.e., software programs stored in the control units of a motor vehicle, a check is performed prior to “flashing” a first control unit with a new and/or updated sequence control to determine whether it will have any negative effects on the compatibility of all the control units installed in the vehicle and equipped with a certain software. Updating is performed in particular to eliminate errors in the sequence control. For reasons of compatibility, it may be necessary to update not only the sequence control of a single control unit but also that of one or more other control units. To avoid compatibility problems in replacing the software or replacing older control units with newer control units using different hardware, it is customary to output the version numbers of all control units out of the vehicle. Therefore, the actual status of the sequence controls and the actual status of the control units are available outside of the vehicle. Using one or more databases provided outside the vehicle, a determination is made outside of the vehicle to decide whether the actual status of the software and/or hardware requires an update and which software and/or which hardware must be replaced in performing this, and in which order.
The readout of the version numbers of the sequence controls of all control units installed in the vehicle and the readout of the version numbers of the control units to provide this information outside of the vehicle, as performed with the known updating methods, are very time-consuming and therefore expensive.
The present invention improves the known method of updating and/or expanding the functionality of the sequence control of at least one control unit of a motor vehicle.
Other objects advantages, and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered with the accompanying drawings.